Wire Sports Briefly

Livan Hernandez is almost ready to begin the season. Cole Hamels says he’s a couple of starts away.

Both pitchers were sharp Tuesday in the Houston Astros’ 6-5 victory over the Philadelphia Phillies.

Brian Bixler won it for the Astros with a three-run home run in the bottom of the 10th inning, long after Hernandez and Hamels had put up a string of zeroes.

The 37-year-old Hernandez, trying to nail down a spot in the Astros’ rotation, pitched five shutout innings, scattering five hits, including a double by Hunter Pence.

HARRISBURG, Pa.

The judge in former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky’s child sexual abuse case said Tuesday that a defense request for more information regarding when and where the alleged crimes occurred is moot because prosecutors have said they cannot produce additional detail.

Judge John Cleland issued the order a day after the two sides debated the matter before him in a central Pennsylvania courtroom.

Sandusky lawyer Joe Amendola said in response that he intended to file a motion next week asking to dismiss all charges “for lack of specificity.”

INDIAN WELLS, Calif.

Top-ranked Victoria Azarenka needed barely more than an hour to beat Julia Goerges 6-3, 6-1 and second-seeded Maria Sharapova routed Roberta Vinci 6-2, 6-1 to reach the quarterfinals of the BNP Paribas Open on Tuesday.

Azarenka moved on to play fifth-seeded Agnieszka Radwanska, who advanced when American wild card Jamie Hampton retired with cramping in the third set trailing 3-6, 6-4, 3-0. Azarenka (20-0) and Radwanska (20-3) have the most match wins this year on the WTA Tour.

LAUSANNA, Switzerland

With the eight-year deadline for IOC action approaching, U.S. anti-doping officials have agreed to turn over files on American cyclist Tyler Hamilton’s doping case so the Olympic body can decide whether to readjust the medals from the 2004 Athens Games.

The U.S. Anti-Doping Agency agreed to the IOC’s request to provide the documents so it can proceed to formally strip Hamilton of the time-trial gold after he admitted doping and possibly move other cyclists up in the medals, the International Olympic Committee said Tuesday.

The case is gaining urgency because the IOC’s eight-year statute of limitations for revising results runs out in August.

NOME, Alaska

The Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race is Dallas Seavey’s to lose at this point.

Seavey had an hour advantage over the nearest musher as he set out Tuesday morning on the last 77-mile stretch of the nearly 1,000-mile race across Alaska.

The 25-year-old Willow musher is described by his own father and fellow Iditarod competitor Mitch Seavey as “fiercely competitive.” The former Alaska high school wrestling champion, who also spent a year at the U.S. Olympic Training Center before turning his attention back to dogs, was the first musher to reach the White Mountain checkpoint at 12:14 a.m. Alaska time.

Once mushers reach White Mountain, they are required to take an eight-hour layover to rest their dogs.